ENVIRONMENT Wednesday-Night

Thursday 11 September 2008 OSHAWA: NDP OFFERS ENVIRONMENTAL PLEDGE
The NDP leader, Mr. Layton, says an NDP government would spend $8.2 billion to promote "green-collar" manufacturing jobs and to keep jobs from leaving the country. He made the commitment at a General Motors truck plant where 1,000 jobs were cut in January, and as many are scheduled to disappear later. Mr. Layton says almost one-half of the money would be used to help the auto industry design and produce environmentally friendly vehicles. Three-billion-dollars more would be spent to retrain laid off auto workers for jobs in the environmental industry. The NDP leader promised as well to spend $400 million to create a job protection commissioner who would investigate major layoffs and shutdowns to prevent jobs from leaving the country. The NDP has never formed a federal government.

Friday 05 September 2008 Sea level rise by 2100 'below 2m' (7ft)
Natural restrictions on the way glaciers move means sea level rise above 2m this century is very unlikely, researchers say.

Monday 04 August 2008 OTTAWA: GOVERNMENT MAINTAINS STANCE ON ENVIRONMENT
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party government is downplaying a finding by a federal advisory panel on the Tories' climate-change plan. The report suggests the Conservatives might be overestimating how much the plan will lower greenhouse gases. The National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy says flaws in calculations could skew projections in the Tories' green policies. However, a spokeswoman for Environment Minister John Baird says the government is confident in its estimates. In a report, the Roundtable did praise the Conservatives for being more transparent in their climate-change reporting this year and for fleshing out their policies. The Conservative government has pledged to cut greenhouse-gas emissions 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020 through a handful of measures. But it has abandoned Canada's commitment to the Kyoto protocol, which requires much deeper cuts.

Tuesday 15 July 2008 TORONTO: HUGE NORTHERN SWATHE GETS PROTECTION
The government of Canada's most populous province says it will set aside a huge area of its northern forest for wildlife and to help fight climate change. The plan to preserve an area almost the size of the United Kingdom, has won praise from environmental groups. Ontario's government says that scientists and native communities will work together to protect conservation lands. The government will also work with northern communities and resource industries to create a sustainable development plan.

Monday 07 July 2008 RUSUTSU: ENVIRONMENT MINISTER DOUBTS G8 BREAKTHROUGH
Canada's environment minister expressed doubt on Sunday that the G8 summit will lead to a breakthrough in efforts to combat climate change. John Baird is accompanying Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the summit. Speaking on his way to Japan, Mr. Baird doubted that the G8 leaders will leave with firm goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He said that a more likely meeting for setting reduction targets would come next year at the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. But the environmental group, Greenpeace Canada, says that Canada is encouraging a dangerous international situation by suggesting that the summit can do nothing about climate change. On the eve of the summit, U.S. President George W. Bush said that any climate change plan would have to involve major polluting countries like China and India. But the United States also stands accused of doing too little to change its status as the world's biggest polluter.

Sunday 04 May 2008 MONTREAL: PROVINCE LIFTS BAN ON CANS
Environmentalists were quick on Saturday to condemn the government of Prince Edward Island for lifting a long ban on aluminum cans. Authorities banned beer in cans 35 years ago, followed 11 years later with a similar law for soft drinks. Plastic was also prohibited. Only glass bottles were allowed. Glass bottles can be recycled more effectively than cans. The exclusive use of glass also saved jobs at the island's bottle-making plants. But metal cans became an issue in the election last year that saw the Liberal Party gain power. On Saturday, Environment Minister George Webster had the privilege of opening the first can. Green Party leader Sharon Labchuk condemned the move.

Canada: Environment & Energy Policy

Posted by Diana Thébaud Nicholson
April 27, 2008

See also Toxic chemicals on wednesday-night.com

Environment Minister John Baird checks out paint at an Ottawa hardware store Saturday. (Sean Kilpatrick/Associated Press)
April 26
Feds want to reduce smog-causing additives in paints, stains and varnishes
(RCI) OTTAWA: GOVERNMENT TAKES ENVIRONMENT STEP

dDo see MANY NEW Envirment Links

Friday 07 March 2008 OTTAWA: GOVT. GIVEN POOR GRADES ON ENVIRONMENTAL DUTIES
The federal environmental monitor has issued a report that takes a dim view of the government's enforcement of its own policies. The environment commissioner, Ron Thompson, has issued a report in which the government is found wanting in nine of 14 areas. His report to the House of Commons notes that the government has promised for years to protect wildlife and habitat but has fulfilled the promise. The report says that auditors recommended six years ago that it draw up an inventory of species at risk but that the list hasn't yet seen the light of day. The document also notes that while foreign species continue to invade Canadian waters, the government doesn't know how they arrive, which are the biggest risks and how to deal with them.

Monday Mar 3, 2008 Officials were warned of oilsands fallout
Senior officials at Environment Canada were warned two years ago about potential economic and environmental...

2007

Dec 10th 2007

Green.view Blue in green
It's time to put greens in their place
EVERY day the world we live in seems to get a little greener. There are green politics, green economics, green living and, well, Green.view. The colour is used as a synonym for environmentalism.

Wednesday 28 November 2007 0:50 OTTAWA: UN CRITICIZES CANADA ON ENVIRONMENT
A UN report has called on developed nations to start fulfilling their promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to provide tens of billion of dollars to help the world's poor countries to adapt to global warming. The 2007 Human Development Report says wealthy nations should not only take the lead in cutting emissions but also come up with $86 billion by 2015 to assist their less advantaged neighbours on the planet. The report says that developed countries aren't fulfilling the emissions reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, describing Canada as an extreme example. Canada became a signatory of Kyoto under the previous Liberal Party government but the present Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, while not abjuring Kyoto, has said its targets are impossible to achieve. At the Commonwealth summit last weekend in Uganda, Mr. Harper said Kyoto was fatally flawed because it doesn't apply to such polluters of the developing world as India and China. Federal opposition parties reacted by calling the prime minister an environmental saboteur. Next week, the UN will hold an international environmental conference in Indonesia to lay the framework of a new world accord on global warming to take effect after Kyoto expires in 2012.

Wednesday 31 October 2007 OTTAWA: GOVT.'S ENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDE POOR
Canada's environment commissioner, Ron Thompson, says a 10-year-old plan to introduce sustainable development strategies and "green" thinking into the government's daily work has failed. The commissioner's annual audit says that there's little evidence that the government has integrated environmental considerations when dealing with social and economic questions. The notion of "sustainability" arose from two statements of principle and a global agenda that emerged from the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. Heads of state and senior officials from 179 nations agreed that while economic development cannot stop, it must unfold within the planet's ecological limits. Canadian civil servants were then expected to act on that conclusion, but Mr. Thompson concludes that the "ambition and fervour" shown at Rio have faded.

Wednesday 25 July 2007 OTTAWA: ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK SAVED
Canada environment department has announced it will renew $800,000 of funding for the Canadian Environmental Network, which provides logistical and communications support for green groups across Canada. Its future was in doubt last week, as the government conducted a review of its effectiveness. A spokesman for Environment Minister John Baird said the department had concluded the network is indeed effective whence the renewal. The Canadian Environmental Network is non-political and does not take stands.

Monday 09 July 2007 TORONTO: >b>CANADA PARTICIPATES IN LIVE EARTH ENVIRONMENT CONCERT
Live Earth, a series of nine rock concerts on seven continents, was held on Saturday to raise public awareness of climate change. The sites included Washington, New York, London, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Hamburg and the Antarctic, where an amateur band played at the British Antarctic Survey Station. In Canada, a Live Earth party was held on the main street of Toronto, and another concert was held in Montreal. Former U.S. vice president Al Gore was a main organizer of the shows. He wants to put pressure on world leaders to sign a new treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 90 percent in rich nations by 2050.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Happy World Environment Day

The UN has designated June 5 'World Environment Day' which, apparently, is not the same thing as the popularly celebrated Earth Day. What would we do without the UN? If you click on the UNEP website, you'll see a few graphics and the words: "Melting Ice -- A Hot Topic?" and underneath "ask" ... "a farmer" and "an islander" and "an indigenous person" and "a polar bear" and ... Wait, wait, wait, wait. Ask a freaking polar bear? How does anyone, anywhere, take the United Nations seriously anymore?

posted by Paul Tuns at 10:52 AM

Tuesday May 29, 2007 Environment ministers aren't buying Tory plan
Environment Minister John Baird was put on the defensive yesterday after an attempt to sell his greenhouse
Quebec Environment Minister Line Beauchamp said she's particularly concerned about Kyoto targets and penalties for businesses that fail to meet those targets.
Critics point out that the latter number sets targets for big business based on their industrial output, rather than placing a hard cap on their emissions. Intensity targets would allow emissions to continue rising along with industry output. [When we impose impossable targets we lose more than if ....]

Saturday 19 May 2007

Harper and Bush under fire from environmentalists
Canadian and American politicians renewed attacks on their respective governments Friday over concerns the Harper and Bush administrations are cooking up a scheme to undermine international action on climate change.
Greenspan pines for Canada
After 6 weeks of being up close and personal with U.S. courts, Conrad Black's lawyer says 'this case has made me appreciate just how magnificent our system is'

And what about Canada's flap over the ecofraud? We loved the confrontation between David Suzuki and John Baird; for once Dr. Suzuki struck the perfect tone of disappointed mentor confronting his student's total failure to understand the subject. Climate change will again be on the menu, given the report from the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research that Arctic ice is melting much faster than previously predicted see Arctic Ice Melting Faster Than Forecast

Friday 20 April 2007 click to cbc In Depth
Living Green

Ban the bulb? What kind of bright idea is that?
Natural Resources Canada has estimated that if every one of the country's 12 million households changed just one incandescent bulb for a compact fluorescent, that would result in a $73 million savings on our collective electricity bills as well as a corresponding 397,000 tonne reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of taking 66,000 cars off the road.

Thursday 12 April 2007

Feds clueless on global warming: experts
The federal government is neglecting the scientific evidence and research on the impact of global warming, a panel of senior Canadian climate experts said on Tuesday.

GLOBAL WARMING

Can one person slow global warming? Actually, yes. You—along with scientists, businesses and governments—can create paths to cut carbon emissions. Here is our guide to some of the planet's best ideas

Monday 05 February 2007

Global warming debate all but over
For the majority of scientists, the debate about climate change - if it ever really existed -- has long been over.

Sunday 04 February 2007 The Reuters Select wrap-up: Investing in the environment
Leading climate scientists said on Friday that global warming was "very likely" man-made, largely as a result of burning fossil fuels. President George W. Bush broached the environment topic in his State of the Union Address, calling on Americans to slash their gasoline use by 20 percent over the next decade. His initiative includes a significant increase in domestic fuels, such as ethanol. Investors looking to make some green moves of their own have many options, from companies involved in biofuels, such as ethanol, to hybrid automobiles. Full Article

Lynx cubs at the Biodome

Wednesday 31 January 2007

Environment commissioner leaving post
A few months after delivering a scathing criticism of the federal government over its inaction on climate change, federal environment commissioner Johanne Gelinas is leaving her job.

Monday 22 January 2007

Toriesto put $30M towards B.C.â€™s Great Bear Rainforest
The Conservative government has announced it intends to contribute $30 million to protect the area of land on B.C.â€™s Central Coast known as the Great Bear Rainforest.

Friday 12 January 2007 OTTAWA: ENVIRONMENTAL TALKS UNDERWAY IN CAPITAL
Canada's new environment minister, John Baird, on Tuesday began a series of meetings with the country's major environmental groups. It's expected that the main concern will be the Conservative government's position on the 1997 Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Last fall the government decided to avoid some of Kyoto's recommendations and launched its own environmental plan. That plan came under strong criticism and eventually led to the recent dismissal of Rona Ambrose as environment minister in a cabinet shuffle last week. Mr. Baird was named her replacement. He is expected to have a new focus on the climate crisis. Last year Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the Kyoto target of a six per cent cut in emissions from 1990 levels by 2012 can not be achieved. But environmentalists insist the target can be met using the treaty's mechanisms.

Friday 05 January 2007

New minister looks to make impact
Canadaâ€™s latest environmental steward is a man with a reputation that is equal parts aggressive policy maker and partisan brawler.

Monday Jan 8, 2007 YES, THINGS ARE HEATING UP, NEW ENVIRONMENT MINISTER SAYS
Canada's new environment minister, John Baird, isn't saying what he'll try to do about global warming, but he suggested in a CBC interview on Friday that weird weather has eliminated any doubts that temperatures are rising.

2006

Thursday, December 28, 2006 Shatar, a herdsman on the Alashan Plateau, feeds his goats. Straddling the Mongolian border, the plateau produces cashmere sent to the U.S., but the barren land is weakening the animals.

Shatar, a herdsman on the Alashan Plateau, feeds his goats. Straddling the Mongolian border, the plateau produces cashmere sent to the U.S., but the barren land is weakening the animals.

That low-priced cashmere sweater has a hidden cost
The country's enormous herds of cashmere-producing goats have slashed the price of sweaters. But they also have helped graze Chinese grasslands down to a moonscape, unleashing some of the worst dust storms on record. This fuels a plume of pollution heavy enough to reach the skies over North America, including Washington state.
China's breakneck consumption of raw materials is part of an economic revolution that has lifted 400 million people out of poverty, but at a growing environmental cost around the globe. And with their burgeoning appetite for Chinese goods, U.S. consumers have become crucial, if unwitting, partners, financing the political survival of China's one-party government.

Tuesday 19 December 2006 rci For the second time in two months, Canada's environment minister, Rona Ambrose, has abruptly cancelled a scheduled appearance at a parliamentary committee that planned to discuss a national policy on global warming. She was scheduled to attend a House of Commons committee meeting, but her office explained that the minister had a scheduling conflict. The office declined to indicate what it was. Last month, Ms. Ambrose cancelled a Senate environment committee at the last minute. Ms. Ambrose has come under criticism from environmentalists and opposition parties for announcing that Canada would withdraw from the Kyoto Accord on pollution-emitting gasses and would set its own greenhouse gas emission-control limits.

The government's Clean Air Act must be beefed up if the Tories hope to win over crucial middle class voters, former prime minister Brian Mulroney says.

In an interview with CBC News, Mulroney, who was recently awarded the title of the greenest prime minister in history, described the act as the beginning of a plan and said to capture the imagination of voters, it needs more work before the next election.

Tuesday Dec 12, 2006
Finally, as we contemplate the damp, foggy air around us, how can we let the remarkable performance of Canada's Minister of Environment go unremarked? "Rona Ambrose asked the auditor general to review Liberal climate spending - but appeared unaware of basic facts of her own government's climate spending Monday." And that's from the government-friendly National Post!

OTTAWA: PM SAYS ENVIRONMENT AMONG TOP PRIORITIES
Meanwhile, Mr. Harper has assured the Canadian Press in a yearend interview that the environment is among his top priorities. The prime minister explained that one reason why Canadians are paying so much attention to the issue is that they aren't distracted by Liberal Party scandals and failures or threats to national unity. Polls have shown that many Canadians believe the government has mishandled the environment question. Mr. Harper entered office by saying that the emissions reduction targets of the Kyoto Protocol are impossible to meet. The prime minister says his government has taken the wind out of Quebec separatists' sails by allowing Quebecers a presence in the UN culture agency and by recognizing Quebecers as a people. On the world stage, he says the Canadian mission in Afghanistan shows Canada can make a difference in the world.
And the prime minister says the hardest decision he has had to make since being elected last January was to start taxing income trusts similarly to corporations, after having campaigned on a election promise not to do so.

Wed1291
After last week [Wed1290]'s discussion regarding carbon-neutral living, we are delighted to refer you to the piece in The Economist on the movement towards including “avoided deforestation” in a list of emissions-reducing activities that rich countries can sponsor to help meet obligations under the Kyoto protocol which provides that nations either reduce their own output of greenhouse gases, or pay for equivalent reductions in more benighted places. please see A ransom worth paying

Saturday 11 November 2006 The European Union wants China to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases. The request was made by Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, who is attending a seminar in Beijing on trade and climate changes. He says that China, which relies heavily on coal power, is about to become the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter and wants China to start looking at the environmental costs of its rapid economic development and to remedy the problems. Sixteen of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in China and 70 percent of Chinese cities do not meet World Health Organization air pollution standards.

Wednesday 01 November 2006 OTTAWA: NDP THREATENS GOVT. OVER ENVIRONMENT Meanwhile, the leader of Canada's opposition New Democratic Party, Jack Layton, says his party wants broad changes to the minority Conservative government's Clean Air Act and threatens to introduce a non-confidence motion in the House if it refuses. Mr. Layton says he wants the legislation sent to a House of Commons committee for extensive revision by the three opposition parties. If the government rejects the idea, he says the NDP caucus will meet on Wednesday to choose among five options, including a non-confidence vote and a motion of censure. The Clean Air Act has been slated by the opposition because, among other things, it doesn't set emissions reductions targets before 2050. Mr. Layton on Tuesday presented a private-member's bill that would oblige the government to put into place within one year regulations governing industrial emissions, as well as an broad plan every five years.

Thursday 19 October 2006 And in Canada --- are we breathing easier with the tabling of the tonight - not impressed.

Wednesday 18 October 2006 OTTAWA: DISREGARDING ENVIRONMENTAL LAW TO BE DUSTED OFF
The Canadian Press reports that several existing but unenforced pieces of environmental legislation will be revived as part of the federal government's forthcoming "green" plan. According to the agency, the government will announce on Thursday that it will revive the 25-year-old Motor Vehicle Fuel Consumption Standards Act as part of its proposed Clean Air Act. The existing legislation contains emissions enforcement measures including fines of up to $1 million for companies that violate the standards and a network of inspectors. However, the legislation is only a framework, those standards remaining to be worked out after consultation with the auto industry and environmentalists. Despite the existence of the legislation, carmakers have persuaded the government that it suffices for them to respect U.S. emissions standards voluntarily. Two weeks ago, Environment Minister Rona Ambrose said that that approach has provably failed.

Please note that with all this news to consider, we have not touched on several major events in Canada, including the continuing fallout from Michael Ignatieff's clarifications of what he has and has not said/meant on the topic of the Israeli-Lebanon war, all of which was heatedly debated on Sunday; the invasion of our lakes including Brome and Massawippi by blue-green algae , the leaked Clean Air Act

...Sounds familiar ... Climate change is expensive. Does that help? An influential report out this month concludes that it will be cheaper to act on global warming now than to wait, but campaigners doubt whether the government will respond

Tuesday 10 October 2006 OTTAWA: FEDERAL GREEN PLANS TO BE OUTLINED
The Canadian government will begin to unveil its intentions concerning the environment in a event in Vancouver, BC, on Tuesday. The environment minister, Rona Ambrose; the natural resources minister, Gary Lunn; and Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon will be on hand. They're expected to establish the themes of government's "new" agenda, which is expected to draw heavily on plans devised by the previous Liberal Party government. Fifty-four environmental groups have sent a collective letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper making a serious of demands for his government's future actions. The activists want the government to recommit ittself to implementation of the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change and set clear, measurable short-term and long-term targets to reduce industrial emissions. an implementation which it has long as is impossible. The advocates also demand regulations for emissions for heavy industry by 2008, with auto emissions regulations being modeled on the strict "California" model.

One commentator [At Wed1283] pointed out that Mr. Stéphane Dion's [pdf] concentration on the environment as the underlying issue, tied to the Scandinavian model, represents the most radical vision of Canada's future, and that this could have widespread appeal, especially to younger voters across the board. In this respect his vision may overcome the usual regional/provincial (in both senses) perspectives and truly represent a new national vision for Canada. On the other hand, Mr. Michael Ignatieff not only has a broad and representative majority of delegates, but has also released an [pdf] environmental policy that closely parallels Stéphane Dion's thinking.

Tuesday 03 October 2006 OTTAWA: MINISTER SUMMONS AUTO EXECS TO TALK EMISSIONS
The Canadian Press news agency reports that federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose has summoned representatives of Canada's big carmakers to Ottawa on Tuesday to explain to them the government's environmental plan. CP cites unnamed government and industry sources as saying the plan will feature government regulation of car emissions. This would be the first time that the auto industry would face regulation. In the past, the industry agreed to self-regulation, an approach which Mrs. Ambrose said last week hasn't worked. The auto firms have said they fear the expensive cost of strict new regulations.

Lat Global Warming -- Signed, Sealed and Delivered
Scientists agree: The Earth is warming, and human activities are the principal cause.
...I am the author of that study, which appeared two years ago in the journal Science, and I'm here to tell you that the consensus stands. The argument put forward in the Wall Street Journal was based on an Internet posting; it has not appeared in a peer-reviewed journal — the normal way to challenge an academic finding. (The Wall Street Journal didn't even get my name right!)

Friday 21 July 2006 OTTAWA: GOVT. HAS NEW 'GREEN' PLAN
The Canadian Press reports that the federal government plans the most ambitious environmental plan since the government of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announced a $3-billion Green Plan in 1991. Green Plan II will include a Clean Air Act to reduce greenhouses emissions and smog. The long-term plan will provide money for national parks, and offer a clean water framework, a clean technology plan, new rules for toxic chemicals and cleanups of contaminated sites.

2008

Taking Care of Polar Bears

Canada: Environment & Energy Policy

2007

GLOBAL WARMING

Lynx cubs at the Biodome

2006